Early Floor Tiling 146

Little Fishes

The writer Tertullian (160-220 AD) in thinking of the significance of Christian baptism wrote, "We Christians are little fishes, and, like our "Ichthus", which is a short form of the term "Jesus Christ, God's Son, Savior", are born in the water. The way to kill little fishes is to take them out of the water." Tertullian means that, if Christians forget their Christian baptism vows, that is the end of them.✞

Tertullian

Tertullian wrote this in Carthage in North Africa about 197 AD. He also wrote about giving, "we do have our money box, contributed to by those who wish, and who are able, once a month. The money is used, not for feasting and drinking, but to help the poor, orphaned children, the old, the shipwrecked, Christians sent to forced labor in the mines, or exiled to islands, or shut up in prison. This is why people say of us, 'See, how these Christians love one another!'"✞

Emperor Julian

About the year A.D. 250, the House Churches in Rome, besides supporting their bishop, 46 presbyters, and a large number of lesser officers from readers to doorkeepers had according to Eusebius, "more than 1,500 widows and poor people, all kept by the grace and loving care of the master" that is Christ. Later still, in A.D. 362, the anti-Christian Roman Emperor, Julian complained, "The Christians feed not only their own poor, but ours as well, while no one in need looks to the temples."✞